Can a bat project light ?

[Cool_Z 1,547]

I was wondering... A bat projects a shadow, but when you make the night version, is there a way to have light coming from it showing on the lot's ground ?

[Jasoncw 11,843]

Nope, unfortunately not.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

Wait a minute......you mean if you make a BAT with an exterior light attached to a building for example ? Isn't the lightcone showing on the groundtexture of the lot? (ingame)

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Wait a minute......you mean if you make a BAT with an exterior light attached to a building for example ? Isn't the lightcone showing on the groundtexture of the lot? (ingame)

 

Well I was thinking about a way to do this :

 

 

without batting the whole lot.

 

Would it be possible to make the lights project on an invisible plane when I render ?

[Xyloxadoria 1,099]

If you do what you are doing right now and include the ground  plane as part of the building, then yes. The lights will project out onto the ground around it. Here is an example with my building:

 

I included the ground plane in my model only because it was needed to be able to work with the unique building shape. On something normal like your house, it might look odd to have the grass as part of the model.  A way around that is to find something to put out there. You could BAT a small patio area, pool, or garden. around the outside of your house that compliments its design. Then the light would fall onto that.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Yup, I was planning to model a patio with a swimming pool attached... but I don't think it will fill the whole lot.

 

I think I'll have to do some experiments  :kitty:

 

 

Edit :

 

I think I found a way. 

 

If I do a render using a bottom view (or from the top making the house invisible to the camera) I can use the light projection as a texture for the lot. This way the lot will be able to follow the terrain slope but will still look correct accordingly to the lights that come out of the building.

[mntoes 271]

OK, but wouldn't that show-up during the day as well?

[Cool_Z 1,547]

OK, but wouldn't that show-up during the day as well?

 

Yup... didn't think about it. Is there a way to make lots change between night and day ? Or maybe make it a prop layered over the tile. I know timed props exist.

[SimCoug 5,973]

You can make props change between night and day, but not textures (as far as I know).

[Jasoncw 11,843]

You can change anything you want between night and day, as long as both have the same silhouette. Your day render and night render are completely different renders, it's just that the night compositing system in SC4 assumes an identical silhouette. So I don't think you would be able to just add in a ground plane for the night render.

 

And you could definitely export the ground underneath the building with the light on it, and then make it a timed prop, but that's a pretty big hassle.

 

I'd also say that the way your lights are right now aren't quite right. I think the light should be falling off faster. For a building like that you'd only expect a little light a few meters from the windows. Once the lights are more like how they should be I don't think anyone would really mind that there's not light on the grass.

[mntoes 271]

Timed props are something I know very little about. I do think that Xyloxadoria has made the best suggestion. A good effect can be acheived with just a simple patio. If the footprint of the building is not too large then then things look quite good.

 

  

(Work in progress)

[cogeo 960]

You can definitely do this, only it has to be a... model, ie model the light beam (or more accurately the highlights it would cause on the ground). And you don't need to search a lot, the ingame nightlights have a part that is always visible (the light post) and another one, which is visible only during the night (the lightcone). They are comnibed together using the Resource Key Type 4 property. Yours doesn't need to be combined with another one, it can be a simple planar model (the LODshell can comprise as few as two triangles). You must mod the model's blending parameters to make it work. Normally BAT isn't required at all for making this model, instead you need to work with the reader and your image-processing application. The lightcones of the ingame streetlights show the same side of the model as you rotate your city view, but I think one of the streetlight mods have lightcones that rotate along with the city view; you can also see such an example in my Logistics Centres pack (the floodlight - it has a horizontal lightcone).

 

And one note, nightime-only props aren't necessarily "timed". Using the Nighttime Change property along with RKT4 (instead of Time of Day) does not result in extra bytes stored in the prop's reference in the savegame file (also causing the so called prop-pox bug, if not used properly). It's a normal prop, with model that you can specify whether will be visible during the day or during the night.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

You can change anything you want between night and day, as long as both have the same silhouette. Your day render and night render are completely different renders, it's just that the night compositing system in SC4 assumes an identical silhouette. So I don't think you would be able to just add in a ground plane for the night render.

 

And you could definitely export the ground underneath the building with the light on it, and then make it a timed prop, but that's a pretty big hassle.

 

I'd also say that the way your lights are right now aren't quite right. I think the light should be falling off faster. For a building like that you'd only expect a little light a few meters from the windows. Once the lights are more like how they should be I don't think anyone would really mind that there's not light on the grass.

 

Well yeah maybe a little too much ;)

 

You can definitely do this, only it has to be a... model, ie model the light beam (or more accurately the highlights it would cause on the ground). And you don't need to search a lot, the ingame nightlights have a part that is always visible (the light post) and another one, which is visible only during the night (the lightcone). They are comnibed together using the Resource Key Type 4 property. Yours doesn't need to be combined with another one, it can be a simple planar model (the LODshell can comprise as few as two triangles). You must mod the model's blending parameters to make it work. Normally BAT isn't required at all for making this model, instead you need to work with the reader and your image-processing application. The lightcones of the ingame streetlights show the same side of the model as you rotate your city view, but I think one of the streetlight mods have lightcones that rotate along with the city view; you can also see such an example in my Logistics Centres pack (the floodlight - it has a horizontal lightcone).

 

And one note, nightime-only props aren't necessarily "timed". Using the Nighttime Change property along with RKT4 (instead of Time of Day) does not result in extra bytes stored in the prop's reference in the savegame file (also causing the so called prop-pox bug, if not used properly). It's a normal prop, with model that you can specify whether will be visible during the day or during the night.

 

OMG this a bit too technical for me... I think have a lot to learn